BUILD-OFF CHALLENGE: Budk – Bumblebee, Rustoration Options

[budk]

This car was found in a garage in Columbus in 2010. A member here, Tornik550 posted in the forum that he found it at a garage sale and that it may be an LE.
He wasn’t interested so I went and looked at it and brought it home. It turned out to be an LE and this is what it looked like when I got it home.





Someone suggested I contact Dr. Evil who was lived about 15 miles from me. Mike came over and we pulled the engine and tranny as well as other parts while he assured me that he knew where everything belonged. Mike rebuilt the tranny and then, long story short, life got in the way for both of us, a couple of years went by and Mike ended up moving to Ohio. Before Mike moved, I realized that he was going to be too busy growing his family and his practice and I didn’t know anything about these engines so I put an ad on the Pittsburgh Craigslist looking for an air cooled engine enthusiast to help me finish put the engine together that Mike and I had torn apart. The ad stated that my preferred choice of payment was beer and that I kept the fridge in the garage full.



I got a couple of replies with suggestions of books/videos to buy but then I heard from a guy who lives a little over an 1.5 hr drive from me. It turns out that he is a 914world member and I believe he has had something like 6 of these cars over the years. His name is Ray (reharvey) but I refer to him as my Mentor. Ray drove down and we developed a list of parts to buy to finish rebuilding the engine. A few months later, after a couple of trips, the case was back together with new bearings, cam and 2056 piston/cylinders but minus the injection, wiring harness, most of the tin and a few other parts. All the original parts that were taken off were kept since this is a numbers matching car.




That was 2 years ago. Nothing else got done in 2014 and now that 2015 is winding down it is time to get back to working on the car… and this challenge is the perfect motivation. The car will need the floor and firewall patched, door sills, longs and a few other pieces including work around the front marker lights. Are new fenders available? One of the PO’s had some work done (poorly) on the sills and the longs so I’m not sure yet what all is going to need replaced. Ray is coming down in a few days to give me his opinion on the body and I expect to be placing an order with Restoration Design soon after.

[budk]

I know this a big challenge and to have a shot at getting done I will need to get all the bodywork done within the next 6 months. Since I live in a cold weather climate and I don’t have a permanent heat source in the garage it will be even more challenging. What I do have is free time, a supportive wife and a Mentor who I can bounce things off even though he will be heading south for a good bit of the winter.

It will be restored as a Bumblebee even though that color scheme is not my favorite. I keep telling myself that it is only metal - it is only metal.... and fortunately I’m not smart enough to be intimidated by it, at least not yet. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)
More to come.